Hello, PseudoNerd! I see on your "My Chow" that you are in Los Angeles. I like the selection of yuzu-koshou at Nijiya Market; they have several different ones to choose from and they are all pretty reasonably priced. I don't know all the differences, but someone in the store can help.

There is a Nijiya Market on Sawtelle in West LA. While you are there, you can get a freshly-made hot red bean bun there, and/or you can go over to Beard Papas right next door for a cream puff!

That I know all too well ^^ I wish the vendors would sell takoyaki, ummm...the fish-shaped red bean thing, and other stuff on a regular basis at that Nijiya. 'Course, I don't think I'd ever even seen that sort of thing done at the Torrance and Little Tokyo locations, so why am I complaining?

the fish-shaped thingie is called taiyaki. tai is the japanese word for "sea bream", the fish species the pancakes resemble. they come with a bunch of different fillings now; traditional red bean, of course, but some are also now filled with chocolate, fruit, pastry cream or even egg+cheese+bacon! in japanese it looks like this should you see it on a menu: たい焼き or たいたき.

never underestimate the japanese fondness for funky kitkats. while i was living there, at various times, i tried aloe yogurt, curry, buttered potato, roasted buttered corn, soy sauce, ginger ale, and more...

They did a series of about 16 regional flavors - the gimmick was that they were only sold in the relevant prefectures - so they became a kind of OMIYAGE ... a present that shows you have been somewhere

Actually, it's suppose to sound like "kitto katsu" ("you'll likely win/succeed"), which is why it is considered a gift for someone going through exams or whatnot. So katsu-don for a meal, and kitto-katsu for dessert?

A shopkeeper told me that Nestle discontinued the matcha flavored versions (the ones that say "オトナの甘さ") because they cannot keep up with the demand. I have no idea if that is true...or even makes sense.

I've actually heard that excuse for discontinuing other products since I've been in Japan. I did some digging around to jog my memory and remembered the same thing happened with a line Häagen-Dazs strawberry cheesecake ice cream, as well as corn pottage flavored gari-gari-kun popsicles, to name a couple examples.

I also thought it made no sense, but there seems to be a couple different reasons for this. First is that manufacturers, distributors and vendors are all contractually bound. So, let's say there's a popular product at Family Mart stores, so they ask the manufacturer to make 2s or 3x more of the product in their next order. But the manufacturer realizes they can only make 1.5x the amount, and they can't keep up with demand. Apparently, if Family Mart can't supply ALL their stores with X amount of a product to meet demand, then NONE of that product will hit their shelves, and therefore, they will not buy that product from that manufacturer. So why, then, doesn't that manufacturer just make enough of that product as their capacity and sell to another vendor? Because they get slapped with a fee (kind of like a non-compete clause) if they sell to another vendor. It also means jeopardizing their relationship with FamilyMart, which they don't want to do either. So they just stop making that product.

The second reason is capacity. If the company can only make 1.5x of the product when they are asked to make 3x, then they stop making the product so they can physically reorganize their manufacturing process in order meet the demand. In the meantime, the product is put on hiatus and reintroduced, hopefully to the same degree of popularity.

I'm not sure if these explain why matcha flavored KitKats have been discontinued. So the other explanation could just be Japanese pig-headedness. I've seen lots of that too.

A lot of times, these wacky products are made for the sole purpose of just gaining attention for the brand as a whole. In many cases, it seems that only one production run is made of a product, then it is discontinued. For something like a corn-potage frozen dessert bar, I feel no sense of loss.